What Doctors Don't Tell YouThe latest ways to diagnose and treat an increasingly common disease, which the medical profession still refuses to recognize.
The Diet
The standard anti-candida diet avoids sugar, all refined carbohydrates (those made with white flour) and, initially, all yeasted foods (especially Marmite, frozen or concentrated orange juice, cheese, bread with yeast, alcohol like wine or beer, grapes and grape juice, raisins, and food that had become overripe). My doctor also restricted my daily carbohydrate intake to 60-80 grams a day at first. If you are slim or underweight when you start the programme, it’s important that you don’t lose more than a couple of pounds. Make sure to have plenty of fresh vegetables. Generally you’re advised to stay on the diet until you begin to improve. Trowbridge offers a helpful step by step approach to relaxing the diet in The Yeast Syndrome.
The Drugs
Besides nystatin some doctors use Nizoral or Diflucan, a new anti fungal drug for yeast problems that are well established elsewhere in the body, largely because nystatin remains in the gut, rather than being systemically absorbed. Stephen Davies sometimes finds that using Diflucan for seven days, followed by a longer term regime of nystatin, produces few “die off” symptoms (ie, the problem gets worse before it gets better). Keep in mind, however, that Nizoral has produced liver toxicity and so must be very closely monitored, and Diflucan is a very new drug whose long term effects may not be known. Dr Mansfield says that some doctors prefer Sporanox (itraconazole) to Nizoral because it doesn’t have the same toxic effects. I started out on nystatin and changed to Fungizone (available in France without a prescription), which produced fewer side effects for me and as capsules was easier to take than the nystatin powder.
For those preferring to avoid drugs, many alternative practitioners swear by caprylic acid, which has anti fungal properties. Dr Davies says that in his experience Mycrocidin, or Mycopryl, a long chain fatty acid, is more effective.
The Supplements
Although this is highly individual, many patients on restricted diets find supplementation useful. Zinc, vitamin C, multi vitamin and mineral tablets, and extra magnesium, all help to boost the immune system. Furthermore, patients with candidiasis tend to have low colony counts of lactobacillus acidophilus, the “good guy” bacteria in the gut. Some people seem to improve with the addition of a powdered supplement.
Alternative Approaches
Many patients, myself included, have great success combining traditional and alternative therapies. In my case, I believe a course of acupuncture eight months into my therapy helped to finally get me completely better.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
